Toulouse prove too clinical for Saints

Toulouse 32 Northampton 16

Toulouse confirmed their Heineken Cup favouritism with a clinical 16-point victory over Northampton in front of 36,500 fans at Stade Toulousain today.

A week after losing the Powergen Cup final to Gloucester, Wayne Smith’s Saints had no answer to the French giants, who ground out a 19-6 lead at the break before powering into the semi-finals with a solid second-half display.

Worse could come for the English side, with international winger Ben Cohen incurring the wrath of the crowd for seemingly kicking opposite number Vincent Clerc in the head on the stroke of half-time, forcing Clerc to the bloodbin.

Referee Alan Lewis and his touch-judges missed the incident, but Saints are unlikely to have heard the last of it.

It was probably the only thing Lewis missed as he blew a merry tune on his whistle, giving internationals Paul Grayson (Saints) and the Toulouse pair of Yann Delaigue and Frederic Michalak (both Toulouse) plenty of shots at goal.

In fact, the first half was simply a kicking competition between the two sides.

Grayson opened the scoring with a monster 50-metre penalty goal in the sixth minute, but that was soon cancelled out by two goals from Delaigue as the home side camped on the Saints’ line in the first quarter.

Delaigue missed a chance to extend his side’s lead to six points when he inexplicably sent a simple penalty attempt wide of the posts, and 31-year-old Grayson levelled the scores at 6-6 in the 25th minute.

A minute later, Delaigue regained the lead with his third penalty goal and both fly-halves were getting in plenty of practice on their restarts as the Toulouse faithful began booing to encourage some running rugby.

Delaigue turned down a chance at goal in the 35th minute, but scrum-half Michalak stepped up and slotted it home.

The try-line was finally breached in the 39th minute when Toulouse secured two-handed ball at a lineout close to the Saints’ line and drove over. Back-rower Christian Labit emerged from the pack with the ball and Delaigue’s conversion gave the home side a 19-6 lead at halftime.

Grayson and Delaigue swapped early second-half penalty goals, before referee Lewis stopped dishing out penalties and started issuing yellow cards. Saints captain Budge Pountney and Toulouse centre Cedric Desbrosse were both given a 10-minute rest.

Michalak added a penalty goal from inside his own half, but Saints replacement Jon Sleightholme gave visiting fans a glimmer of hope with a well-taken try and Grayson’s extras narrowed the gap to 25-16.

The glimmer vanished minutes later when home replacement Cedric Heymans capitalised on a James Brooks error to score untouched under the posts.

Toulouse play the winners of tomorrow’s Leicester versus Munster clash at Welford Road in the semi-finals.